22nd February

Todays lesson was about Ali Baba as i didnt bring in my backs i was told to sit out for most of the lesson. There ws some bgood ideas being used but I didnt have any input.
The second lesson the idea of being bstract was really going well however I feel the group including me will have to increase our concentration.

21st February

Todays lesson was all about Es-Sindibad the sailor this was with Jamie and he started by telling us to try to make a bird which was alike the time he told us to make a house but it seems some people didnt listen as it became a brawl again. We were then told to focus and ask a few people to start out this worked a lot better.
We were then given masks from Jamie and some poeople not myself but others were told to wear them and project there emotion even tthough the masks had there own expression some people found this hard but after a while it worked here are some examples....

We were then told to make a box shape out of sticks and we made up a little routine this proved quite chaleenging with some people saying they didnt want to do it however with a bit of persaverence we managed to succeed


Strengths: For this lesson I was actaully quite focused and i will need to carry this into next lesson.

Weaknesses: my weaknesses are that I need to try ideas out more.

20th February

At the begining of this leson we would have a 4 to 5 week schedule which diesheartened a few people but made me more determined to try and make up for all my abscences.

Most of this lesson was focusing on the prolgue so I didnt have much to do I tried learning some of my lines. And looking at how I was going to perform certain characters as I had been given Haroun who was a very big contrast to the little begger.This willl allow me to exten my range in a performance and learn to change my acting styles swiftly.

Strengths: My strengths were that i self taught my self resonably well I got on with what i had to do and chipped in for ideas when the proglogue needed it.

Weaknesses: My weakness was that I am again being very dusruptive even though im working im not helping the group as well as the fact that as a group we need to start getting a higher level of discipline.

9th February

In this lesson I was rring to go as I had missed two previous lessons so I was eger to try and impress jamie and gaving. I was told I was going to be the little Begger which I was happy about because I felt I would be able to make this character my own and allow me to really perform and start to stop holding back.
I was then told we were going to continue blocking the Prologue so after I was positioned and told what to do. We were then postioned on two sides of the stage in an arc like line with sticks. We then worked on our cues for when we do certain moevments whcih i found tobe pretty simple. We then started getting a feel for the roles of certain people for exaple I felt sharayer played by Arnold and Sharazad played by Daniella had good chemistry and would work well together.
I feel that for the upcoming performance im going to need to really apply myself learn my lines and take it seriously as I dont do that enough.I also need to start trning up and on time and stop missing so many lessons. These are big improvements that i feel will enable me to properly fufill my potential.

7th February

Lesson 1 In this lesson Jamie went over some more dance techniques we started with a warmup which is helping me with my flexibility which I do lack in, we then went onto learning some more dance routines. I feel this is helping me a lot and would like to learn some more of it.

Lesson 2 In this lesson we were given post stick notes in which we had to write stuff down the order was this...

Pink - Random word
Blue - Action
Yellow - A Character
Green - A Childrens Playing Game.

We were told to make this into a routine and create a clever way of linking all the things together.

Strengths- My strengths were my new found ability to work in a group to make a nice routine and help eveyone to express there ideas.

Weaknesses- My weakneses were the fact tht I again had a huge lack of focus.

1st February - My Birthday

Lesson 1-  In this lesson Jamie split us up into two groups and we wre told we were going to be given different things to create using our body also trying to be a little abstract...
The first was a door we decided to make a revolving door and won the first round as the other groups was to simple.
We then had to make a traffic light we decided to lie on the floor and make one but this did not get s a point.
We then had to create the sea but with using some fabric our group decided to have a nice looking wave with different coloured fabric it looked very good and got us the point.
In this lesson we realised that we had to listen to eachother and work as a team to get the job done.

Lesson 2-  In this lesson the whole group was told by Jamie to make a 3-D house during this proccess a lot of people were trying to take control I noticed this and stepped back as I did not want to add a the ramble me and other people then discussed the idea in a way that was not problematic to the class and allowed eachother to speak this way we formulated a simple idea that we and a few other people agreed would work however many other people were trying to get there idea across so me and Teri satyed quite. The next period Jamie had noticed this we theen tried out idea and it managed to work which again showed how working as team in a civil manor.

Strengths- My strengths were my ability to use what I had learned personally in other lesson to help me perform better in this one and that was the ability to hear other people out but also get myself heard when I come up with a good idea of myself.

Weaknesses- My weakness was the fact that I did not communicate with my other class sooner and tell them to listen to everyone else and stop trying to take control as this was resulting in ideas being mixed and them not working.

26th January

In todays lesson we were told about or FMP we were told it was oging to be Arabian Nightss. Now I did not know what this was before but after being told it had many stories into one I quite like the flexibility of it and the factt we could do anything with it. his greatly intruiged me and after being told more by Gavin and Jamie I was estativc about it.

We read halfway through the script and i found that inbetween these very fun story was a very nice intimate part that broke up the story. I also found that most of the stuff we had been doing linked very well into this idea of story tellling.

Strengths- My strengths were that as I was so enthusiastic about this play when we read it our i volunteered to do the play and I kept reading when I got home.

Weaknesses- Again my weakness was my lack offocus and also that fact that I was late and didnt come in the lesson before.And could of missed some important information.

24th January

Lesson 1 In our fist lesson we were told by Jamie we were going to work on our dance technique this was something I have said before was a major weakness so I feel this would have been quite a big thing for me to concentrate in. For our first excercise we were told to get into many different individual shapes after a short excersize, I learnt some good points and felt this has opened a gateway for me to improve my work even further.


Lesson 2 Jamie then told us to gather around the board in which we were taught tp develop movements even further, he then showed us this graph which is called the effor graph.




This taught us about moevemtns being Bound, Light,Strong and Free then about them being susatained or sudden direct or indirect. Jamie then went on to talk about...

We then learnt about the 'Eight Basic Effort Actions', which basically means every day movements intrepreted into dance moves. Such as the flowing:

• Slash- Like a sword
• Glide- Like ice skating
• Thrust- Like a punch
• Press - Like pressing a button
• Flick - Like flicking hair or fluff off of you
• Dab- Like a painter dabbing a brush
• Float - Like your flying
• Wring- Like when drying out a flannel.

We then leanrt about Rhythms, which are tempos to do with movements. Such as the following:

• Rebound - In the middle of a movement (weight is free and strong)
• Swing- Inthe middle of a movement (weight is light and bound)
• Impact - Accelerates a movement
• Impulse- Decelrates in a movement
• Continuous - Throughout your piece.

Of these things will help me to develop my dancing technique and improve how I create a dance as well.

Strengths- My strengths in this lesson were that I managed to understand what Jamie said quite easily and can know move on to use this in the futre.

Weaknesses- My weakness in this lesson was that I did not consider other people as i was talking a lot during class which I really need to improve on.

23rd January

In this lesson we were shown a poem called 'The Melancholoy Death of Oyster Boy' which can be found at this website http://homepage.tinet.ie/~sebulbac/burton/oysterboy.html.

We were told to use props in different ways from the way they were used in every day life. In my group we used the props in very unique ways one of them being the plunger was the knife used to kill the 'Oyster boy' we tried to change it by doing a more modern mix but this did not work and we were clearly the worst group and I will take responsibility for it.

Strength-  I was able to use the props in a number of unique ways no other groups thought of.

Weakness-  As i was mucking about all lesson our group did not preform as well as we could have which was a disappointment as the task was very intriguing. And if i had of concentrated i could learnt a lot from it .

19th January

Lesson 1-  In lesson Gavin told as to sit in a circle and told us we were going to do some story telling. To do this we were going to each say a word and the next person would carry it on. It took us a whiel to grasp this as people were mucking about and trying to be the individual however we found that it was very much about working as a team and helping the next person out to make a story. I found it hard because I could see the story in my mind but other people saw it different so it was a learning curve for me but i felt i did well.

Lesson 2- For our next lesson we were split into groups and given different things to make sounds for. We were given a forest and a pirate ship. Our group discussed the things before and we found the forest very easy to do but I felt I took control a bit so I decided id take a back seat in the next one. In the soundscape of which we did the pirate ship I did try to take a backseat even though I had some ideas and didnt agree with some others but the sounscape didnt sound right so I learnt that next time dont just hold back allow other people to talk but still speak your own mind when you want to.

Stengths- My strength was my ability to work as a group in the first lesson but also use that to help me to work with my group in the second lesson.

Weaknesses- Id say my weakness was the I didnt say anything in my second soundscape but I should of allowed other people to say what they wanted but also say mine. But I learnt my lesson and will now be able to take this forward.

16th January

Today in lesson we were given a script from 'The New World Order' and was first performed on 19th July 1991.

The part we looked at was between two men named Des and Lionel and an actor who was blidnsfolded in the middle Des was the more strong-willed character who took charge, however Lionel was more looking for approval about what he's doing and how hes acting infront of this blindfolded man.

In my piece I played Des and Paige played Lionel with Leonna as the hostage. For my piece I used a lot of body language to help me build this mean and sadistic character. Paige made her character a bit of a dunce who seemed to admire my character and tried evereything in her power to get my approval.

Strengths - Id say my strengths were what I did with my character and how I used my knowledge of the things we have learnt in previous lessons to make my character. I feel my body language was good.

Weaknesses - I think again I need to be more focused and learn to make the character my own more as well as working on my positioning and although it was good making my body language even stronger.

12th January

Lesson 1 Today in lesson we wroked on the stanislavski system so that we could use this or the seven states of tension or even both to fully develop characters that we get.

      
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Stanislavski - Link for the history of Stanislavski and his views and beleifs.

1) The Given Circumstances -

This is everything to do with the play, what you are given such as; the story of the play, facts, events, time and place, the actors and the directors, the production, the scenery and costumes, the sound effects etc. It includes everything that the actor is asked to take into consideration.

2) The 'Magic If' -
 Links in with The Given Circumstances as the actor now has to question everything to do with the performance, has to question how they would behave and so on.
3) Imagination -
 Exactly what the title says, the actor must have a good imagination of what they think the performance will turn out like and have to imagine being that character and how to link it in well with the rest of the production.
4) Concentration -
An actor must be able to control their imagination, and not bring it to far away from what the aspects of wjhat the directors want. There are three levels of concentration;
   1- Outer: The actor must be able to focus on the stage and their surrounds on the outside of their bodies, must shut out the audience.
   2- Inner: Have to shut out their own thoughts, and become their character, remained focused.
   3- The Outer World: Have to observe and understand what your doing, look at the history, religion, culture and art of it all.
5) Relaxation -
An actor must have a flexiable and versatile voice and body.
6) Units and Objectives -
An objective should be "I want..." Should have sections.
7) Truth and Belief -
Concentrating on a small physical actions which allow the actor into the character.
8) Effective Sense Memory -
An actor must be able to have good memories, must learn the history of the character there playign and try to re-live their memories, blocking out their own.
9) Communion -
An actor doesnt just work on their own, actor msut react to others on stage and with their imagination act how the role they would play would react back.
10) Adapation -
Its all about adapting into a truthful, organic part of the performance.

Lesson 2 In this lesson we were told to sit on chairs and imagine we were in a cafe in france, we were then told to eat some chocolate and drink some tea. I personally do not like tea or chocolate but i made a character and he liked it so when i tried it i liked it. This was good for me because i was able to realise that i could make a character and have it be me not just be something im playing.

11th January

Lesson 1 We were learning how to properly warm ourselves up as well as stretch every part of our body. One of the techniques we learnt was to go down on every vertebrate of our back at first in a count of eight twice then a count of four twice.
This is good for us because then we can not only practice this at home but will allow us to develop out own warm up techniques so that we can either teach them to other people but also have a way to warm up that is well suited to us.
We also started to look at our movement quality which is especially good for me as feel i have bad movement quality.

Lesson 2 "Text has an intention, and it is your duty, as a choreographer, to say it with clarity and simplicity'.
This was the key part of our lesson as we were learning how to take a piece of text nothing more and nothing less and make it into a piece of movement and say what we want without verbalising it.

The poem we were given was called 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' (http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html - a link to the poem) it was a WW1 and conveyed much emotion and very descriptive language so i found it very easy to interpret this. My group used motifs and such things to show a soldier who was in love with someone before he went go and die in the war with the women trying to hold onto the memory of him knowing she may never see him again. It seemed nice because 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' means 'It is fitting and proper to die for ones country' as at the end he said the 'The old lie, Dulce Et Decorum Est' and in our performance the man follows his friends into war as it is 'proper' to fight for your country but at the end there is no retribution and his death was just again as meaningless as the last.

This was good because I feel this allows us to develop our analysing skills as well as our choreography and interpretation and our ability to work as a group.

Strenghts - I feel I worked very well in the fact that i manged to understand the poem quite quickly and take things from it and take those ideas and change them into movements as well as my ability to work in a group and allow everyone to have a good input.
I feel i developed my analysing further however i feel it could be even better but this comes by analysing more and more things.
Weaknesses- One of my weaknesses again was my movement quality my ideas were good but i need to work on how every part of my body moves as well as implying the seven states of tension as well as the usual weakness that i don't focus and concentrate enough.

9th January

The Seven States Of Tension - Jacques Lecop

 1 The Jellyfish. There is no tension in the body at all. Begin in a complete state of relaxation. If you have to move or speak, it is a real effort.
2 Californian (Laid Back). Many people live at this level of tension. Everything you say is cool, relaxed, probably lacking in any real thought or effort.
3 Neutral or the Economic (contemporary Dance). It is what it is. There is nothing more, nothing less. The right amount. No past or future. You are totally present and aware. It is the state of tension before something happens.
4 Alert or Curious. Look at things. Sit down. Stand up. Indecision. Levels 1 - 4 are our everyday states. Think Mr Bean.

5 Suspense or the Reactive. Is there a bomb in the room? The crisis is about to happen. All the tension is in the body, concentrated between the eyes. An inbreath. There’s a delay to your reaction.

6 Passionate. There is a bomb in the room. The tension has exploded out of the body. Anger, fear, hilarity, despair. It’s difficult to control.

7 Tragic. The bomb is about to go off! Body can’t move. Petrified. The body is solid tension.

To get a better grasp on this Gavin helped us by getting us to lie on our backs compeltely motionless, we had to use our imagination to get our body language to suggest we had been on a heavy night out after a while of this we all wanted to stay on the floor but then we were told we needed a glas of water so we had to get up this was hard as we all felt a lot of weight on us through being so relaxed , By using 'The Jellyfish' state we had to make our body boneless and do things with very little effort or thought. When we got up we were told we had to start walking in a cool and controlled way but still not using much effort or making and decisions. We were told to imagine being on a beach or somethingWe were then told to lose sall ties of a story and have no past no futre this was the " Neutral". Then the story got deeper, we were told we were strolling througha snowy town in Russia with someone calling our name this. We then fastened our pace, heads turning during the 'Alert' state. We then were told a we found a box infront of us. We all slowed our pace down, the tension rising in the room. We then were told to open the box using the 'Passionate' state, some of us opened the box instantly others decided to lengthen this proccess. Then the state of 'Tragic' exploded through when were told it was a bomb and there was only five seconds left on it. I could feel everyone in a still image, our bodys frozen.

I feel that I managed to grasp this theory through this excercise. I think this will be very usefull and i now find a way to develop some of my characters using this technique.

17th January

In lesson we were told we were going to watch some videos and study there Action, Dynamics, Relationships, Aural and Space and comment about what we liked about each of the video and pinpoint some of the important notes to include based on these five words we had been given.

-The first video was Yesterday by Yasmin Vardimon and was for her 10th anniversary which was performed in 2008. The specific piece we looked at in this was called lullaby it involved a man talking about illness while using a pillow to seemingly beat a women up, During the fight the girl gained the upper hand for short periods of time showing the symptoms of the illness then the man took over and finally suffocated the 'illness'. The message behind this was that the women was the illness trying to attack his body and the pillow acting like a barrier to protect him. There were also moments where he stopped to rest and she attacked which shows sometimes you think its gone but it comes back fighting.

-The second was by Christopher Bruce and was called Rooster which was performed in the late 1980's this shows a group of dancers dancing with jazz type movements bopping there head like a rooster to a song called little red rooster by the rolling stones. The dance starts with a man dancing on his own for almost two minutes with other men behind him standing around making slight movements every so often in time with the first mans movements. Then a women joins in and starts dancing with one of  the men behind they support her in making larger movements. She dances with two individuals they then finish the dance by walking away bopping there head seemingly rejecting her. She then dances with two other males who both support her for some more lifts they then walk away bopping there head but on in the same rejecting fashion as the first two.Then some of the male dancers from the piece including the first man comes back into shot with two other women dancers with the first female dancer still dancing. The male dancers then turn to face the camera then there is a blackout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bTW8tPL6qY&feature=player_detailpage - This is a youtube video of the piece.




 - The third was Car Man by Matthew Bourne it was performed in either 2000 or 2001 the piece we looked at had no particular name but was at the very beginning. They are in a car garage with many men working they seem to dance in the way of ballet dancing in pairs or threes I believe this is showing them working as when they are not dancing they go of to areas and work on the cars plus the dancing is in time but has a messy organised style which I like. They start reasonably out of time and the energy is low until the boss comes in and the unison begins to  pick up as well as the pace. They perform moves and walk in and out of each others movements possibly showing them helping one another with certain tasks.A man who is clearly late then comes in the dancers start picking up the pace even more. Almost everyone is out on the floor space dancing when the boss rings a bell and they all break out of there messy organised dancing pattern and leave the floor space going of scene. The women then come on with a very different type of dancing they are elegant and float around dancing together in harmony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek5kT8Zt300 - This is a youtube video of the piece.



We then had to use these understandings and make our ow performance based on one of these pieces creating a similiar story line but using our own idea and interpretations to make the piece unique. I was partnered with David,Cat and Arnold and we were given the Car Man to interprate. We decided to keep the fact it was in the garage but create a different scenario and also keep the movemtnts done at diiferent moments with eachother to show us working. We decided that the story line was going to be me Arnold and David are working then cat comes in and we try to seduce her one after the other which was a mix of little red rooster with her rejecting us instead. At the end she turns out to be married so we head back to work.

 http://youtu.be/qa3Lmg7qm9Y - My Performance video on Youtube.

Strengths - My strengths in these lessons were that I am very good at anilysing meaning through dance as well as picking up on other movements im also quite good at using my analytical skills to good use by making a piece out of them and taking certain ideas and discrading others to create a piece within a group. This lesson also helped me to develop these skills further and i hope i will continue to do so.

Weaknesses - I would say my weakness is when i was dancing i need to work on my dancce moves greatly as my quality is not good things such as pointing toes and such. Also I need to focus properly in lessons however i feel that i did improve for this lesson i do need to get evenbetter to maximise my potential.